A review by sarahmatthews
The Past by Tessa Hadley

reflective medium-paced
The Past by Tessa Hadley

Read on audio
Narrator: Antonia Beamish
Vintage
Pub. 2015, 362pp
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I was straight back into the rhythm of Tessa Hadley’s writing with this book and knew I was going to enjoy it from the first chapter. The story is about four grown up siblings, Harriet, Roland, Alice and Fran, who agree to spend 3 weeks in their grandparents’ country house in order to decide whether to sell up or renovate the old, rather shabby place. It’s a beloved house that they’ve all been visiting since childhood so it holds some precious memories.

Tessa Hadley always gets straight into the inner thoughts of her characters and there’s always plenty of small observations and phrases that are relatable, such as Alice arriving with 20 year old Kaseem, her former partner’s son:

“She was 46 and she was afraid of failing to interest him, she would be crushed if he didn’t like it here” 

There’s some great writing here about the complex nature of families and how they relate to each other in such a closed environment, with all their shared history and longstanding resentments. there’s very little phone reception and the younger characters, Molly and Kaseem find it hard to be cut off from their city life to begin with. the younger children, Ivy and Arthur, are brilliantly depicted as they trail around after Molly and Kaseem, trying to be part of whatever they’re doing.

The siblings are all very distinct, a group of slightly quirky, middle class, well educated adults who’s mother sadly died when they were teenagers. The secon part of the book flashes back to 1968 to follow a short period in their mother Jill’s life and it explained why the siblings turned out the way they have, with a storyline I wanted to return to!
Tessa Hadley writes brillian dialogue, I loved this bit, a conversation between mother and daughter:
“‘Isn’t it lovely here Het?’ She said ‘Look at the swallows going mad in the field. They’re drinking insect soup.’
‘What’s insect soup?’
‘The air is full of creatures we can hardly see, the birds are feasting on them.’
They stood at the field gate, watching in close companionship” 
If you enjoy authors like Barbara Pym, Anita Brookner and Iris Murdoch this one’s for you.